★★★★ Acting as my first review for 2021’s Fantasia International Film Festival, Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story (coming to Netflix later this year under the translated title, You Animal!) could not have been a better table-setter. A saucy and deeply horny animated love story that is decidedly not for younger viewers, this film took … Continue reading Fantasia 2021: Hayop-Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story
Film Review: Nine Days
★★★★★ It has been a very long time since I have watched a film as philosophically satisfying and devastatingly powerful as Nine Days. Winston Duke’s soothing voice and passionate line-delivery (as an omniscient being named Will) is just perfect casting, and that is before even delving into the excellent ensemble. The easiest way for me … Continue reading Film Review: Nine Days
Film Review: Vivo
★★★★★ Despite a noticeable lack of advertising push, Sony Animation’s Vivo is a colorful, emotional, and utterly profound family film. When I started watching on Netflix, I figured I was essentially in store for an animated In the Heights—instead, Vivo feels much more Coco. I did not realize just how deeply I needed a feel-good … Continue reading Film Review: Vivo
Film Review: Pooling to Paradise
★★★ The best road trip films have a clear, concise point and purpose, or clever, hilarious hijinks that are so outrageous you can’t look away. Pooling to Paradise has neither of these things, but it does do well by its eclectic cast of characters. They each have definition, notable backstories, and something they hope to … Continue reading Film Review: Pooling to Paradise
Film Review: Resort to Love
(Written by Allison Brown) ★★ If you are looking for a brief escape from reality, Resort to Love is a formidable generic romantic comedy for this purpose. I found it difficult to connect to the romance element, as there was not much chemistry between Christina Milian and either of her suitors. The plot was hollow … Continue reading Film Review: Resort to Love
Interview: Nine Days Screenwriter/Director Edson Oda
One of the best films of the year, unquestionably, is the new thought-provoking star-studded drama, Nine Days. Will (Winston Duke) is a recruiter for the special gift of life, and now he must find a soul (Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, Zazie Beetz, and more) to fill the newest vacant slot. He tests the candidates in … Continue reading Interview: Nine Days Screenwriter/Director Edson Oda
Film Review: Masquerade
★★★ Judging by the name Masquerade in the title and the general logline, I didn’t think I would be too far off from my general assumptions. I thought I was about to watch a fun and thrilling horror movie about masked invaders intruding on a big masquerade party. Instead, the film portrays a horror-movie-obsessed young … Continue reading Film Review: Masquerade
Film Review: The Exchange
★★★ The Exchange leans much harder into the comedy than the drama, but that doesn’t stop it from occasionally delving into deeper issues, particularly prejudices based on skin color and the difficulties of being a foreigner. Set in Hobart Ontario “Godforsaken Canada” in 1986, a town whose mascot is a white squirrel of all things, … Continue reading Film Review: The Exchange
Film Review: Ride the Eagle
★★★★ If Jake Johnson smoking weed and playing with his dog in the woods sounds like your idea of a good time, boy have I got a surprise for you! Ride the Eagle, which Johnson also co-wrote and co-produced with director Trent O’Connell, is a note-perfect dramedy that, for me, doubles as perfect catharsis. Having … Continue reading Film Review: Ride the Eagle
Film Review: Stillwater
★★★★ (Written by Allison Brown) Stillwater, a town in Oklahoma, serves as the locale of origin, as well as a key device in the climax, for this aptly titled movie from Focus Features. Written and directed by Tom McCarthy, the film offers up Bill Baker (Matt Damon) as an all-American, southern caricature (fitted with the … Continue reading Film Review: Stillwater